Chapter 5

I stared at the man lying on the bed, his breathing faint, and sighed with my hand to my forehead.

“Mother! Didn’t I tell you not to pick up any more men?”

“You only told me not to pick up scholars.” Looking rather guilty, Chunfeng held a bowl of soup and tried to coax some between his lips.

I sighed again. Somehow, she had left me without a rebuttal.

Watching her struggle, I stepped forward, pinched the man’s nose, and pulled his head back. His mouth opened at once.

I took the bowl and poured the soup straight in. He choked and coughed, but after a moment his eyes slowly opened.

The three of us looked from one face to another in silence. In the end, I had to ask where he came from.

His eyes darted about before he announced that he had lost his memory.

“What a feeble excuse!” I shot back immediately. Pointing at Chunfeng, I added, “Someone already fooled her with that one. Pick another.”

To my astonishment, the man’s eyes reddened. Clutching his chest, he tried to rise.

“Forgive my intrusion, madam. I’ll leave at once.”

His voice was clear but wounded as he addressed Chunfeng. “I truly have forgotten. I think my surname may be Sun… Ah, my head still aches, and my chest hurts after choking just now.”

Chunfeng hurried to support him. “It’s all right. Rest for now.”

She turned to fetch another bowl of soup, then pinched my puffed-up cheek in reassurance.

“Just look at that honest face. How could he possibly be a liar?”

“Thank you, madam. I shall never forget your boundless kindness.” He thanked her in a syrupy voice, then flicked me a triumphant glance.

My teeth ground together. I was ready to flatten the little vixen then and there.

The Fox surnamed Sun settled into our home. We told outsiders he was a cousin from Chunfeng’s native village who had come to stay with us.

Once Cousin Sun recovered, he still showed no sign of leaving.

Yet from the day he arrived, the odd noises beyond our walls and outside our door disappeared.

He did not eat our food for nothing. He hauled water, cooked, and sparred with me so I could practice the moves I learned at school. Every day before dawn, he went outside the city to cut firewood, saving us a considerable sum. When Chunfeng worked at the forge, he helped her there as well.

His tongue was even more useful than his handsome face. He learned the Gaoyou dialect with astonishing speed.

Sweet-tongued and strong, he never refused a neighbor who asked for help. His good name spread quickly, and matchmakers even came to make inquiries.

Friendly as he was with everyone, he guarded his virtue like a proper gentleman. Even when an unmarried girl dropped a handkerchief for him to retrieve, he pretended not to notice.

I did not want him and Chunfeng together. Yet I also feared he might truly be a good man and that I would cost her an excellent match.

Since his arrival, he had taken over every chore inside and outside the house. Chunfeng could devote herself to smithing, and her skill advanced by leaps and bounds as she devised one new pattern after another.

I no longer disliked him quite so much. Most importantly, with that towering, brawny build, there was no chance he was a scholar.

Still, I kept my guard up and continued my investigation.

Whenever he sidled over to flatter Chunfeng, I appeared in time to break the spell.

My bargain-bin father had coaxed her away from Qingjiang with a few pretty promises, left her penniless, and saddled her with a bargain-bin daughter—me.

Now this Fox Sun had no known past, a way with words, and a handsome face besides.

What if he was a trafficker planning to sell both of us?

Caught between hope and worry, I reached the winter solstice.

It was my birthday. I turned ten that year.

Chunfeng closed the shop early to prepare a birthday feast, and Suxian came to help.

“That cousin of yours is quite a catch!” She nudged Chunfeng and snickered conspiratorially.

Chunfeng glanced at Fox Sun, who was chopping wood. Color spread across her cheeks. “Oh, I’m still watching him. My girl says men always deceive me and I ought to learn some caution.”

“Is that girl truly yours? She takes nothing after you. Far too clever for her own good.” Suxian teased her without the slightest concern that I was standing right there.

Chunfeng caught me glaring sideways at Suxian and burst out laughing.

I seized the opening. “Of course I am! Of course my mother gave birth to me!”

Suxian had not expected such a fierce reaction. My own impulse left me flustered too.

“Exactly!” Fox Sun came to my rescue as he stacked firewood beside the stove. “Who but my cousin could have given birth to such a pretty little girl?”

He scratched my nose.

“That’s right!” Chunfeng crouched before me, cupped my face, and rubbed it back and forth.

The flour on her hands got into my eyes. They stung and swelled.

That evening, I took stock of my birthday gifts. Miss Yang had given me a new outfit, while Suxian had brought a delicate longevity peach made of sugar.

Fox Sun gave me a jade pendant. He claimed that holding it in one’s mouth could neutralize a hundred poisons. A single fleck of red glowed within the white stone like a crimson wintersweet blooming in snow.

One touch of its smooth, warm surface told me he was no ordinary man.

My favorite gift, of course, was Chunfeng’s: a silver sword that strangely echoed the jade pendant.

I could not imagine how she had fashioned a silver blade from black iron sand. Its luster was rich and mellow, its substance cold as ice. The sheath was a simple, ancient-looking black. From it hung a beaded tassel she had woven herself, crooked and uneven, but the result of long practice.

I hung the pendant around my neck, hugged the sword to my chest, and hesitated my way to the kitchen.

Fox Sun was scrubbing pots and bowls with practiced efficiency. In the wavering lamplight, Chunfeng studied my schoolwork, her face full of tenderness.

I made a wish upon the crescent moon.

I ask for nothing else this year. Let Fox Sun be a truly good man. Let Mother have found the right one this time!

If one wish was not enough, I would stake next year’s and the year after that on it too.

“I approve of the two of you!” I shouted toward the kitchen, then ran.

After two steps, I doubled back, threw myself down before Chunfeng, and knocked my head twice against the floor.

“A mother suffers to bring her child into the world. Mother, thank you for all you endured.”

I knew Chunfeng must have cried terribly behind me. Luckily, comforting people was Fox Sun’s greatest talent.

The only casualty was the ink on my homework, which bled into a shapeless blot.

The next day, my teacher made me stand for half the lesson. He refused to believe my mother’s tears had ruined it.

“With handwriting that looks as if a dog scratched it out, you expect me to believe your mother wept from emotion?” he scolded.